Super-Cember Day #7: Batman Returns (1992)

(Originally posted December 7th, 2017)

At the very start of this month, I saw the original Batman. Today, I saw its sequel, and may I just saw, I was thoroughly impressed. This movie blew away all of my expectations and left in its place the best movie I've seen this month so far. So, here's my review of Batman Returns (1992), starring Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Danny Devito as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Christopher Walken as Max Shreck.

Batman Returns (1992)

As you may remember, while I did like the first Batman movie, and I absolutely adored its villain, there were a lot of noticeable flaws that stopped me from really ranking it so highly. That's why, at around the 90 minute mark, I was shocked when I though back to what I'd seen thus far and realised I didn't have many problems with what I'd seen. Also, while the first movie I found somewhat predictable, this one kept me guessing right until the end. I had no idea where it was going, and I love movies like that: movies that aren't formulaic or obvious with which direction they're heading.

Michael Gough as Alfred

Michael Keaton is back as Batman, and he once again nails it. I know that this is the last film in which he plays this role, and I'm going to be very upset to see Batman portrayed by someone else, purely because of how well he does here. One of the problems I had with the previous film that I didn't have time to mention was that Bruce Wayne was unchanged as a character by the end, and he never learned anything from his experience with the Joker. In this film, he doesn't learn a lesson per se, but you do get the sense that he has been changed by this experience, and the Bruce from the start of the film is not the same Bruce at the end of the film. He doesn't really have an arc, but the experience has a profound effect on him, and that's just one of the little things that makes this such a great movie.

Michael Keaton as Batman

We have a whole bunch of new villains this time around, and the main one is the Penguin. The Penguin is an intrinsically silly character, especially with how they portray him in this movie. That's why I was surprised by how dark he gets by the end, and that's not a bad thing at all. I heard this movie caught a lot of criticism because of its supposedly dark tone, and yes, the situation and events can get dark, but it never strays across any line that I would call 'too dark'. It's just dark enough to be entertaining and have that shock factor that plays well into a story and villain like this. Part of that comes down to Danny Devito's performance. I do not envy this man, as Jack Nicholson was quite a big act to follow. But, in some ways, Devito does a better job than Nicholson did. Yes, I will always love the Joker in the first movie, but the Penguin is just more ridiculously insane and evil here. I touched on how I hate insanity for insanity's sake, but we do get enough of the Penguin's backstory for it to be completely believable as to his psyche.

Danny Devito as the Penguin

Christopher Walken plays Max Shreck, and when I saw his name in the opening credits, I rolled my eyes. Don't get me wrong, Walken's an entertaining actor whatever you think of him, but I never thought he could be in a Batman movie. And yet, not only did I really enjoy how subtle his performance was, but I was shocked at how slimy the character was. Yes, it's the typical 'guy-in-a-suit' villain that all superhero franchises have, but the way Walken plays it, it seems like such a fresh thing. I love that silver tongue of his and how it seems he can talk his way into getting what he wants out of someone. You can believe a man like that would be in such a position of power. Not only that, but I love the brief glimpses of humanity we get from him through his son. That, combined with Walken's performance, took what I initially thought to be such a one-dimensional character, and turned it into one of the surprisingly great aspects of the film.

Christopher Walken as Max Shreck

But, by far, the best thing about this movie is Michelle Pfeiffer. Oh, my God, I'd heard great things about her performance in this movie, but she absolutely killed in this role. Before this, the only exposure I'd had to Catwoman as the Halle Berry movie, and my God was this a drastic improvement. Pfeiffer took what could easily have been such a cheesy, over-the-top, ridiculous character, and grounded her in reality in a way I don't think I've ever seen before. It helps that we see quite a lot of her before she becomes Catwoman, and you can completely see her point-of-view. Her outburst in her apartment I could watch over and over and over. I also love that we get to see the Catwoman persona take over her, but it never strays into insanity. Again, it's grounded in reality, and Selina's inner turmoil is one of the things that really kept me guessing. She was so entertaining to watch, and she even had a very believable romance with Bruce. Such a drastic improvement from Vicky Vale.

Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle

Are there problems with this movie? Well, I was surprised to find that whenever I was thinking about something that didn't quite make sense, I remembered something from earlier in the film that explains that 'plothole' without directly telling the audience like they're idiots. It's a smart movie. That said, there are one or two things that don't quite add up, such as how Penguin was able to make all those gadgets with just stuff from the sewers, or how Selina is so goddamn resilient. But, those are just small gripes for a comic-book movie. And, occasionally there's a CGI effect that's just bad enough to stand out, but much like the first movie, those are few and far between.

How did Penguin rig these Penguins with rockets in a sewer?

It comes down to this: if you haven't seen Batman Returns (1992) watch it. If you've already seen it, watch it again. It's movies like this that make me glad I decided to do this movie marathon, as I likely wouldn't have seen this masterpiece any other way. I'm definitely going to be revisiting this in the future. 9.5/10.

Tomorrow: it's a slight tonal shift; it's Kick-Ass.